Together or Alone: Can Philanthropy Effectively Tackle Systems?

Crystal Hayling Executive Director, Libra Foundation

Philanthropy has long grappled with a persistent challenge: how to ensure investments create lasting change rather than short-lived gains. For global health funders, this question has become even more urgent as funding in the field faces mounting pressures and deep...

Over the past year, I’ve had more conversations than I can count that start with the same sentence: “We don’t know what’s going to happen next.” That uncertainty isn’t new to nonprofits — we’ve always built plans while juggling unpredictability. But what feels...

It’s hard to talk with nonprofit leaders today without hearing some version of the same story: Policies are shifting, funding is more uncertain, and the demand for services keeps rising. And yet, the organizations closest to communities are being asked to do more with...